He was probably right that 50 per cent or 70 per cent of the lawyers that go to court aren't prepared or equipped.

I heard you're taking on the cigarette companies.

I tried one of those cases and lost it, in New Orleans about ten years ago. The cigarette companies paid the other side over a million dollars...Then I had a fucking judge, I think that he couldn't wait until five o'clock so he could water his tobacco plant in his window box...

The judge said, "Mel, if you get by with this...what's to prevent you from suing Elsie the Borden Cow for giving too thick cream and causing cholesterol, or suing Jim Beam for giving cirrhosis of the liver?"...[In the current case] what I'm trying to do is prove to a jury that cigarettes do cause cancer, period. Then if people want to smoke, it's up to them...I don't think my client had any choice, I think she was addicted.

What about the case in which the Ford company was ordered to pay $128 million to a man whose Pinto gas tank exploded? (The punitive judgement was overturned on appeal.)

I thought the punitive should've stood. In punitive damages you're allowed to show the wealth of the defendant...it doesn't hurt if you penalize a billion dollar company $50,000, you have to penalize them in the millions of dollars, in order to make them change, change their goddamn gas tanks...The judge compared it with his salary and he dropped it.

How about the Hearst case?

Bailey's a damn good lawyer, but he did a lousy job...just execrable...It's pretty hard to sue a lawyer for malpractice, for an error in judgement...He made the worst mistake in the world when he got into a spitting contest with his client; a lawyer never can win that. There are some things people won't forgive you for saying about your former client. But he's one of the best in the country.

Why didn't you ever go into politics

I never wanted to be responsible to anyone, really. I wanted to be thoroughly independent.

Do you think there are too many lawyers in government?

No, I think that's a good place for a lawyer.

Do you think the new crop of lawyers is different?

Yeah...they come in and they ask me if they're going to have time on their own to do pro bono work, bail bond projects or whatever. I find a lot of fellows who are interested in doing something for individuals...more interested in doing that then they are in making money. When I got out of school in 1933 I think the accent was on making money...the hell with going out and doing pro bono stuff.

What would you advise someone just out of law school to go into?